The major theme that runs through Frantz Fanon’s paper, Black Skin, White Masks, is the racial profiling and stereotyping of black people. Fanon exposes societal definition of black people not only in relation to their complexion but also as opposed to white men. The author laments that such stereotyping has entrenched inferiority complex among the blacks. To this end, black people are not viewed as distinct individuals but as descendants of formerly enslaved ancestors. As a result, they are haunted by a heritage of slavery. Gabor S. Boritt and Scott Hancock portray the identity conflict within the self of a negro. They argue that American black men are forced by the society to view themselves as two souls, with competing ideals enshrined in one black body.
The second major issue that the author seeks to portray is the societal perception of black professionals. He argues that it does not matter how learned or qualified a person is in his profession as long as he is black, services offered by him will always be qualified by his blackness. As such, if they are to make purely professional errors, the society in question will be quick to impute the error on the fact that they are black. Damon Tweedy in his book, Black Man in a White Coat appears to entertain the same views as the author with regard to being a black professional. He reflects on how race influenced interactions with his patients in his medical career. More so he reflects on the highly raced diseases where certain illnesses are described as being common in blacks than whites.
More so, the author exposes the stereotype to the effect that the blacks are viewed by the society as representing an evolutionary stage that is long overtaken by events and time. As such, they have no place in the contemporary world. In a nutshell, it is a white world which cannot be complete without blacks.
On the other hand, Mari Carmen Ramirez’s article, A highly Topical Utopia: Some Outstanding Features of the Avant-Garde in Latin America basically talks about the insubordination of Latin American new and unconventional arts made by Latin American artists in the Twentieth Century when viewed through the lenses of western civilization. Alvarez Maiola argues that such self-insubordination led to influence of a great deal of Brazilian utopian art by European avant garde. He further argues that Latin American avant garde movement was characterized by overhaul of political ideologies especially in Brazil during the 1950s. .
Additionally, Ramirez seeks to expose outstanding features that characterized the aforementioned art. To this end, he cites four predominant features. Firstly, he attributes to the art the crucial nexus across most of the art with its reference to both remote and immediate historical past. Moreover, the author asserts that the art in question was characterized by its disinclined view in relation to what was considered to be novel, an indispensable attribute of avant garde art. More so, Ramirez posits that the art was typified by opportunism that was synonymous among the artists. Finally, he posits that the artistic strategies adopted by the artists were disdainful towards what the society considered serious.
References
Boritt, G. s., & Hancock, S. (2007). Slavery, Resistance, Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mariola, A. V. (2015, December 8). Neoconcretism and the making of Brazilian national culture, 1954-1961. Retrieved April 4, 2016, from Open Access Thesis and Dissertations: https://oatd.org/oatd/record?record=california%5C%3Aqt12p4x2n8
Tweedy, D. (2016). Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine. London: Picador Publishing.
